News & Events

December 11th, 2013

SkySat-1 First Light

We are excited to share the first images from SkySat-1, the first of our planned constellation of 24 satellites.

The following images were taken over Perth, Australia, on December 4, 2013 at 10:25AM (local time) and are untuned and not yet calibrated. As you can see below, features are clearly discernible that validate our goal to provide high-quality, sub-meter imagery: car windshields, varying car colors, road markings, etc. These images exceed our early expectations for quality.

SkySat-1 is a high-performance satellite producing sub-meter resolution imagery and high-definition video that was designed and built at our headquarters in Mountain View, California. To our knowledge, SkySat-1 is the smallest satellite ever flown that is capable of capturing imagery at better than 1 meter resolution.

SkySat-1 was launched on November 21, 2013 from Yasny, Russia aboard a Dnepr rocket. We made contact with the spacecraft on the first pass and completed bus commissioning within days. Once the payload door was opened, initial images were captured within hours. We are tuning and calibrating the system and are excited to deliver more imagery soon. To watch video footage of the rocket launch, go here.

For more images, check out our imagery gallery here. We will be updating the gallery with new imagery going forward.